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I am delighted to welcome you to the Kotler-Srinivasan Center for Research in Marketing at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai. For the past five years, the K-S center has successfully conducted an annual research conference in marketing jointly with the North American Society for Marketing Education in India (NASMEI), with approximately a 50:50 mix of researchers from inside and outside India. The conference in 2012 is cosponsored by the U.S. Marketing Science Institute, the well-known industry-academia joint venture celebrating its golden jubilee this year.

During 2011 the K-S center hosted its first marketing analytics conference, and a second one is planned for 2012. Marketing analytics is growing substantially in India, catering to the needs of companies from both inside and outside India. India's reputation in statistics and IT, and the large cadre of successful marketing academics and practitioners of Indian origin from the U.S. bodes well for the future of marketing analytics in India. The Kotler-Srinivasan center hopes to play a catalytic role in this development.

Best wishes,Professor V. "Seenu" Srinivasan
Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, emeritus
Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Marketing is undergoing another transformation. Marketing was dominated in the 1950s-1960s by product-centered thinking. In the 1970s-1980s, the paradigm shifted to customer management thinking. Then in the 1990s-2000, brand management thinking prevailed. Now we are moving into values-management thinking where we consider the purpose and ethics of companies. Is this or that company showing any caring about the larger problems burdening society, such as poverty and pollution and climate warming,

Today people are talking more freely and critically to their social media friends about companies and brands. People are ready to praise a company or impugn a company about whether the company delivers the promised value and practices good values. We might reach the day when no company can last that is not producing good value and practicing good values. And when all companies are good companies, companies will have to move to the next stage of finding new anchors on which to pin their identity.

I wish you a most enjoyable experience at the Conference.

Best wishes,
Dr.Philip Kotler
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University

Dear friends,

I am delighted to pen this message for the Kotler -Srinivasan Center for Research in Marketing. Named after the two world-renowned legends in Marketing who have played a critical role in helping us understand and practice Marketing the way we know it today, the Research Center set up under the aegis of the Great Lakes Institute of Management, is an attempt to create a Marketing knowledge powerhouse. Marketing itself is a combination of art and science. While the creative component encompasses various innovations that contribute to identifying new markets, products, uses, users, distribution, packaging and selling systems, the equally critical technical component revolves around the usability of these ideas, testing, prototyping etc., among other things, to ensure that the ultimate consumer experience is non-pareil. Ergo, it is inevitable that Industry and Academia join hands to continue on the trail of knowledge identifying newer avenues not only for academic research but also for customized integration and practice in Industry.

The Kotler Srinivasan Center for Research in Marketing is an attempt to achieve just this and will bring together marketing enthusiasts the world over on a common platform, to engage in the creation and publication of cutting-edge research in Marketing and allied areas, to work hand in hand with the industry by putting to practice many of the creative and innovative researches that are available with the center and above all to serve as a storehouse of abundant knowledge on the discipline. All this we hope to achieve through the many conferences, symposia, brainstorming sessions etc., that are planned on various topics under the center, the publications of our Great Lakes Journal which will record the presentations and publications and also partner with corporate houses to realize synergistic benefits.

For the achievement of these lofty goals I wish the Great Lakes Kotler-Srinivasan Center for Research in Marketing, the very best!